Following Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, Jenson Button slated Sergio Perez as "dangerous" and "dirty", suggesting the Mexican would cause an accident if he failed to calm down. Button was left fuming with Perez's driving as the 23-year-old first clipped the Briton from behind as he attempted to pass, losing part of his front wing, and then banged wheels with Button at high speed, with both fortunate to avoid a major incident.

Button twice went on to team radio to voice his anger and Whitmarsh has admitted to being badgered by his colleagues on the pit wall to bring a halt to the apparent madness. "I had a lot of noise in my ear, people saying 'stop this, stop this, it's hurting us', suggesting I stop them racing," said Whitmarsh.

But living by the creed at McLaren that both drivers are equal and free to race - unlike at Red Bull and Mercedes where team orders were issued in Malaysia and caused such a stir - Whitmarsh stood by his guns.

Whitmarsh added: "I didn't, and I know it could have gone horribly wrong. On balance it was the right thing - in the long term - for both drivers to know they are racing each other and are competitive.

"If you do that the driver behind is always going to feel aggrieved, so I let it go because we allow our drivers to race.

"To have said to Checo 'don't fight', or to Jenson 'yield, let your team-mate by', I've not yet done it and I don't think I'm likely to start doing it any time soon.

"It's not the first time I've had to make a decision like that. It's happened lots of times before. That's my job.

"Nobody is going to give an instruction like that to a driver without my approval, and that's how we go motor racing.

"Of course it's uncomfortable because you face a situation where, if they had taken each other off, I'm the one with microphones in my face, so that gives me the privilege of making the decision."